EM-1 culture for bokashi

EM-1 culture for bokashi

Wed Nov 26, 2014 12:36 am

Does anyone have any experience making an EM-1 (effective microorganisms) culture for bokashi. I live in a country where I cannot buy a pre-made culture in a bottle and have to culture each ingredient myself.

I have cultured the lactobacillius

I was wondering about some other bacteria that would be effective in bokashi like Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Rhodobacter sphaeroides or yeast such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Re: EM-1 culture for bokashi

Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:27 pm

Oh no! The teacher called on me!

OK I have to admit I was a bit intimidated when I saw this because the OP mentioned specific bacteria species.

My bokashi experience isn't extensive but here's what I know -- I've tried using store bought bokashi to culture more even though this is considered not effective due to dilute and limited activity level compared to the concentrated liquid (if purchased in optimum condition).

That said, my home made batch did seem to work when used in bokashi composter/fermenter.

As far as specific bacterial species are concerned, I have no way of ID'ing what I have, but my bokashi bin smells like active rice bran (nuka) pickling bed and sometimes like bubbly Kimchee, if that tells you anything. I also read somewhere ( I would have to look for that link) that you could collect wild yeast and other beneficial organisms that comprise part of the patented blend by leaving cooked rice in the woods.

I have often thought that by collecting all the beneficial probiotics like whey and pickling juices from home made lacto fermented pickles like nuka, Kimchee, sauerkraut, cucumber pickles, etc. cheese and yogurt whey, kafir, etc. it might be possible to obtain sufficiently active enzymes and microbes to handle the same job.

Learning never ends because we can share what we've learned. And in sharing our collective experiences, we gain deeper understanding of what we learned.

Re: EM-1 culture for bokashi

Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:23 pm

thanks for commenting, applestar

RE: "you could collect wild yeast and other beneficial organisms that comprise part of the patented blend by leaving cooked rice in the woods." And the rice is still there when you come back? Someone must have different woods than mine. I would not find any rice, the raccoons and many other critters would have gotten it.